Yar, you be here: Mallrats > Customer Reviews

Mallrats Customer Reviews (52 - 54 of 59 Reviews)

Slackers Rule The Mall
Kevin Smith's second film in "the Jersey trilogy", MALLRATS centers around two budddies, who spend too much time, hanging out at the mall. T.S. (Jeremy London) and Brodie (Jason Lee) have recently been dumped by their girlfriends. The friends decide to try and win them back by making a trip to the mall, where Brodie's girl, Rene (Shannen Doherty) and T.S.'s girl, Brandi (Claire Forlani) will be as well. Along the way, the boys meet up with Spiderman creator Stan Lee (playing himself), and this being a Smith film, Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (Kevin Smith), make a spirited return after CLERKS. The film has that great View Askew take on life. As usual though, it's Lee, who gets all the best lines. By having a few characters from CLERKS return, the films are (loosely) tied together, and even introduce us to what the future holds for some in CHASING AMY. Don't let that stop you though, the movie works fine as a stand alone. Critics have said the film was not quite as good as Smith's first film--it's just different--that's all.

The Collector's Edition DVD has another winning commentary from Smith et al. There's over 60 minutes of deleted scenes from the cutting room floor. Some of which are really funny, while others are not, a mixed, but worthwhile bag. The extras also include footage fom the commentary recording session, a making of feturette, the clever theatrical trailer, a video from the soundtrack, and a handful of production photographs. This disc is a must for fans of Kevin Smith Recommended.

"Mallrats" is a great film from Kevin Smith
"Mallrats" comes from the comic genius of Kevin Smith, who brought us the completely original "Clerks". "Mallrats" failed in theaters, but after watching the film, there seems to be almost no reason why. It combines witty dialogue with funny situations and all in the place where teenagers flock to on weekends to escape the outside world for a little while.

Smith concludes that the reason that the film failed was due to marketing. The poster was great but if you didn't know anything about it, then you would think: "O.K., there aren't any known actors, I don't really know anything about it, I'm not seeing it." He calls the T.V. spots weak and basically blames it all on Gramercy, who he says couldn't market themselves out of a paper bag.

I totally understand his point of view. This movie is a great follow up to "Clerks" and really had no reason to fail. It did have a large act to follow, but it did a stand up job.

"Mallrats" opens with a spectacular display of comic book covers based on the characters in the film. We are then introduced to T.S.(Jeremy London) who is planning a Florida vacation with his girlfriend Brandi(Claire Forlani). The only problem is that she can't go. Her father (Michael Rooker) produces a T.V. game show called "Truth or Date" and she has to go on as a guest. T.S. is upset and she retaliates by telling him that it is his fault(which it really is).

T.S.' best friend Brodie(Jason Lee) is a serious comic book collector and emphatic video game hockey player. He is having problems with his girlfriend as well. He hardly notices her until he can't have her, when she walks out of his room leaving him to his video game.

T.S. and Brodie retreat to the mall, where the stage for the game show is being erected. They have to stop it from going on, in order for T.S. to get his girlfriend back. In order for them to do that, they have to go to the imfamous duo: Jay and Silent Bob(Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith). Brodie attempts to get his girlfriend Rene(Shannon Doherty) back who has fallen into the arms of the Fashionable Male proprietor Shannon(Ben Affleck).

Meanwhile, Rooker tries to keep his show on schedule. In doing this he attempts to keep T.S. and Brodie away. His stage protector: LaFours, who even has two kills. It is he who Jay and Silent Bob must distract in order to destroy the stage.

Like "Clerks", "Mallrats" takes place in the span of a day. The characters all speak with perfect English and have long vocabularies. The difference is that in this film, there is more plot and more characters, but they work in this film's favor.

Once again Kevin Smith has created a screen gem that was not appreciated in its own time but really came to be on video. Sure the critics trashed it, but really, critics shmitics.

Ties with Dogma for my Favorite Smith film
Kevin Smith claims he's not a talented director, at least interms of visuals, and camera angles. But none of that amtter,s because he is a damn gifted writer, and even though it may be aimed towards the teenage crowd, and has found a huge cult following among that age group, Mallrats is perhaps the best example of Smith's talent with words. Of course on a lower budget, (with Clerks, Mallrats, and Chasing Amy) he really couldn't rely on fancy visual effects to get the job done. Luckily, he writes some of the wittiest, most hysterical dialgue and monolgues ever put to film.. See the movie and you'll see what I mean.
Sure there's no plot, but that doesn't matter with this kind of film. I suggest a rental first. If you like it, and wish to purchase it, the Collector's Edition DVD is the best way to go. It is absolutely jam-packed with extras. And my favorite part was the audio commentary which is both funny and informative.
Plus, the movie has an awesome soundtrack, (a preview of what's on it is included on the DVD) so check that out as well.

Previous Page

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

Next Page